Keeping families safe

Water and toilets transform a community.

Joyline’s family in Papua New Guinea used to collect water from a dirty stream. And like many villages downstream, the water they drank was contaminated with defecation and microbial pollution. As a result, simple – yet deadly – diarrhoea threatened the children’s lives every day.

WaterAid helped install a rainwater harvesting system in Joyline’s village, and 14 ‘tuffa tanks’ with taps so the children can drink clean, safe water.

The difference was immediate. “It tastes good!” says Joyline with a grin. And Lamak adds, “The water is sweet!”

The community replaced the village pit toilets with one safe toilet per family, dramatically reducing illness.

The Village Chief was overjoyed, “I have been here so long and I have never seen such benefits to the community,” Chief Nelson says. “I am really seeing the benefits of the
water project. We are happy with this program, we are very happy. The water I have, the food I eat…I have lived a very difficult life, but you have relieved me.”